Progressive Party General Meeting: No to EU

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Progressive Party General Meeting: No to EU

February 08, 2013 18:44Updated: January 30, 2014 20:24

The general meeting of the opposition’s Progressive Party (Framsóknarflokkurinn) is taking place this weekend, where the party’s campaign goals for the upcoming parliamentary election in late April will be set.

In the latest polls, 14-21 percent of respondents said they were going to vote the Progressive Party.

In his opening speech on Friday, Progressive Party chair Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson criticized the parties wanting to continue the process of joining the European Union, dv.is reports.

“There is a party in this country which is running under more than one name and maintains that entering the EU and adopting the euro is not only a solution to all our problems but the only solution,” Sigmundur said.

He referred to the Social-Democratic Alliance and the new party Björt framtíð (‘Bright Future’; BF), which he called the former party’s “satellite.”

Sigmundur stated that the Social Democrats’ EU policy skews the debate “about nearly all urgent matters and even blocks real solutions, because they would rather wait for solutions from the European Union.”

“Progress [framsókn] for the home, progress for the economy, progress for Iceland,” were the chairman’s final words.

The coalition’s Left-Green Movement and the opposition’s Independence Party have scheduled their general meetings for the last weekend of February, while the Social-Democratic Alliance’s meeting took place one week ago.